Sutton railway station (London)
| latitude=51.3601 | longitude=-0.1903 }} Sutton railway station is in the London Borough of Sutton in south London. It is the main station for Sutton town. It is served by First Capital Connect and Southern trains. It is in Travelcard Zone 5. The four platforms at Sutton station are numbered 1 to 4 from north to south. Platforms 1 and 2 are on the lines to Wimbledon, Epsom, Dorking, and Horsham. Platforms 3 and 4 are on the Epsom Downs Line, which becomes single track about half a mile south of the station. Platforms 1 and 3 are used by services from outer termini to Central London. Trains from Central London use platforms 2 and 4. Terminating trains which return to Central London generally use platform 4. Platforms 1 and 2 can accommodate 12-coach trains and were used by the express services to Bognor and Portsmouth until they were diverted in the early 1980s to serve Gatwick Airport. Nowadays all trains calling at Sutton are formed of eight coaches or fewer. At the Central London end of platform 1 there are the remains of a fifth platform which was a bay for local services via Mitcham Junction. A waiting room has been built on part of the site. History Sutton station was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) on 10 May 1847 when the railway opened its line from West Croydon to Epsom. A branch to Epsom Downs was opened on 22 May 1865 followed by a line to Mitcham Junction on 1 October 1868. The final change to the station came when the branch to Wimbledon opened on 5 January 1930. Until the early 1980s, it was possible to catch a direct express train to the coast from here to Bognor Regis, Chichester and Portsmouth. This service, until its withdrawal, also gave Sutton the fastest ever journey time of 17 minutes to London Victoria. Since the 1980s, these express services are routed via East Croydon to serve Gatwick Airport and passengers from Sutton for the south coast now have to change at Horsham or travel to West Croydon and walk, take the bus or use Croydon's Tramlink service to get to East Croydon. Today, the service to London Victoria now takes over 25 minutes on the direct route via Hackbridge. Wimbledon branch Parliamentary approval for a line from Wimbledon to Sutton had been obtained by the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) in 1910 but work had been delayed by World War I. From the W&SR's inception, the MDR was a shareholder of the company and had rights to run trains over the line when built. In the 1920s, the London Electric Railway (LER, precursor of London Underground) planned, through its ownership of the MDR, to use part of the route for an extension of the City and South London Railway (C&SLR, now the Northern line) to Sutton. The SR objected and an agreement was reached that enabled the C&SLR to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the LER giving up its rights over the W&SR route. The SR subsequently built the line, one of the last to be built in the London area. The line opened on 5 January 1930 when full services on the line were extended from South Merton. Services The typical off-peak service from the station is: *10tph (trains per hour) to London Victoria, of which 2 run fast to Clapham Junction, 2 call at all stations via Hackbridge and 4 call at all stations via West Croydon and Norbury and 2 call at all stations Via West Croydon and Crystal Palace *2tph to St Albans via Hackbridge, Herne Hill, London Blackfriars, City Thameslink and St Pancras. *5tph to Epsom *1tph to Epsom Downs *2tph to Wimbledon via the Thameslink loop (Luton in the summer) *2tph to Dorking, 1 extended to Horsham This station also used to have a frequent off-peak service to London Bridge; however, this off-peak service was withdrawn, with peak-hours services only being retained - namely, a dozen or so through-trains in total between 5.30am and 9.00am, and a similar number during the evening rush. The City of London can nevertheless still be reached all day via Thameslink, and via both Thameslink and (as stated above) London Bridge during peak-hours. }} }} }} Transport links London bus routes 80, 164, 280, 470, S1, S3, S4 and night route N44. Non London bus routes 420 Gallery Image:Sutton (Surrey) station platform look west.JPG|Looking west from platform 1 (Epsom main line), with a Class 455 unit awaiting departure from platform 4 (Epsom Downs branch, though through services normally use adjacent platform 3). Image:Sutton (Surrey) station platform 2 look east.JPG|Looking east from platform 2 (Epsom main line) Image:Sutton (Surrey) station west junction.JPG|Looking west from platform 2 towards the junction with the Wimbledon branch heading northwards. Image:Sutton Station 02.JPG|View from platform 4, looking west towards the rear of the main station building on the overbridge. References External links Category:Transport in Sutton (London borough) Category:Railway stations in Sutton (London borough) Category:Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Category:Railway stations opened in 1847 Category:Railway stations served by First Capital Connect Category:Railway stations served by Southern Category:DfT Category C2 stations nl:Station Sutton (Londen)